God, I'm getting excited now. C'mon England.You know who I want to see wasted - Brazil. I'm sick of their smug self assurance and their aren't-they-prettier than yours girls. I want to see them demolished by some sensible european team. Samba to that.

There are a lot of countries that I hope will do very badly:Italy - The already won the last one, I hate Matererazzi with a passion (I know he's not on the current squad but I hate him enough to still hope his country will lose) and they elected Silvio Berlusconi as their prime minister three times.Portugal - They eliminated us twice in the last few years and Cristiano Ronaldo is a Barclay Hunt.Brazil - They already have enough World Cups.Argentina - It would be healthy for Maradona to get a few cracks in his ego.United States - They're already the best in a lot of things, do they really need to be successful in a sport that they don't even really care about?North Korea - Because any success on the World Cup will be abused for Kim Jong-Il's propaganda.

An interesting take on perspective. Most English regard Germany as our mortal football enemy, and we assume Germany feels the same. Apparently though this ios not the case - to them England is just a team that beat them in 66, more due to home ground advantage and dodgy Russian linesman. Apparently Germany regards its big rival as Holland, which would p*ss a lot of english off.

An interesting take on perspective. Most English regard Germany as our mortal football enemy, and we assume Germany feels the same. Apparently though this ios not the case - to them England is just a team that beat them in 66, more due to home ground advantage and dodgy Russian linesman. Apparently Germany regards its big rival as Holland, which would p*ss a lot of english off.

Whose quote was:Football is a funny game between two teams of eleven players. They play for 90 minutes with a 15 minutes break and in the end, the Germans have won.

An interesting take on perspective. Most English regard Germany as our mortal football enemy, and we assume Germany feels the same. Apparently though this ios not the case - to them England is just a team that beat them in 66, more due to home ground advantage and dodgy Russian linesman. Apparently Germany regards its big rival as Holland, which would p*ss a lot of english off.

Interesting. I guess it must have something to do with the 1988 European Championship semi-final between Holland and Germany, which was in Germany. Lots of hostility there because the Dutch still wanted revenge for the 1974 World Cup final. Berry van Aerle pulled Rudi Voller's hair when he was on the ground. Hans van Breukelen yelled "I hope you f***ing die!" to Lothar Matthaus when he was on the ground after a Schwalbe. Eike Immel roughly threw Marco van Basten off him after injuring him. Ronald Koeman wiped his ass with a German shirt after the game. And of course there was the spitting incident between Frank Rijkaard and Rudi Voller in 1990.

Every team is obliged to select three goalkeepers. The North Korean coach decided that he didn't need three goalkeepers and that he could use an extra striker, so he had striker Kim Myong-Won registered as his third goalkeeper. Now it turns out that anyone who's registered as a goalkeeper is in fact only allowed to play as a goalkeeper.

Group AI think this is the most difficult one to predict. French is usually either very good or very dissapointing, it's always hard to tell what it's going to be. Mexico and Uruguay are pretty much equals I think. And South Africa certainly has one of the weakest teams in the tournament, but it's become a bit of a tradition that the hosts always do better than expected. I don't think they'll make it to the next round though.

Group BArgentina has some great players but Maradona is a disaster, so they'll have to do well despite him. They'll probably progress a round or two, but I don't see them winning the tournament. Same thing goes for Nigeria. I don't expect much from Greece and South Korea.

Group CShould be a fairly easy one for England. I think it'll be between the US and Slovenia to decide who'll come in second.

Group DAlso a difficult one to predict. I suppose everyone expects Germany to win this one, but even though they don't have as much quality, Australia and Serbia will be tough to beat.

Group EYou'd think this one shouldn't be too much trouble for The Netherlands, but you never know. I expect more from Denmark and Cameroun than from Japan.

Group FShould be a walk-over for Italy. I'd be surprised if New Zealand would get a single point out of their three matches.

Group GAny other outcome than Brazil and Portugal going to round 2 together would be a big surprise. Same thing for North Korea as for New Zealand.

Group HSpain will win this one easily, I think they're the strongest team in the tournament. Second place will probably be between Chili and Switzerland.